Chapter 355: Overtime

The vague, distant silhouette of a "water corpse" zombie.

Taking advantage of the fact that it had lost sight of me, I jabbed it twice, quickly and sharply.

I methodically eliminated each "zombie," just like a technician shutting down a runaway robot.

Still... hey.

This is bad.

What's bad? The smell.

Compared to these guys I'm dealing with now, regular "zombies" are practically gentlemen.

The level of a guy who can tie a bow tie and go on a date at a fancy restaurant.

To describe that smell... um...

It's like rotten protein that's been left in a sewer where every kind of filthy thing humans produce has been mixed together and left to rot for ages.

Yes, exactly that.

There's honestly no other way to put it. This stench.

I was already struggling just to stand on one leg, barely able to breathe—there's no way to describe how unbearable I felt at that moment.

It helped me a little earlier to catch a brief glimpse of Mayi-san’s fighting style.

Now, I’m drawing significant inspiration from her movements in my own combat approach.

While I don’t possess her kind of speed, I’ve managed to apply her method to enhance my own power—simply by strengthening my leg strength.

Thanks to this, I’ve been able to roughly mimic the fighting style of the "dancer" who overwhelms opponents with speed.

Still, this style is a bit exhausting.

It’s not that I’m using magical power to accelerate my movements—I’m just physically pushing myself to increase my speed and number of attacks.

"Ah… ah… ah, phew…!"

After stepping back from the group, I removed my mask and took deep breaths.

Watching Shibusawa and the others sprinting full-tilt toward the "door" — I charged forward once more. Just a little more overtime, I’ve got to push through.

...Anyway, just realized something — among these water corpses, these "zombies," there are actually a few female specimens.

But the differences between male and female are so subtle that you wouldn’t even notice unless you got really close.

The creepiness of it all... was truly something else. These guys are like a nightmare for any girl, really.

I solemnly swear here and now that no matter how gloomy I feel, I will never choose drowning as a way to end my life. Yes.

"Uwaa, o, o, o, o"

Having successfully gathered the group's full hostility, I decided it was time to put some distance between myself and the pack.

The real trouble, though, was still... that massive "zombie" specimen.

Clearly, this one was enhanced with a special magic, making it stand out from the rest—though its movements were painfully slow, it possessed an incredibly sturdy constitution that even a dog's sword couldn't penetrate.

Worse still, it seemed to reflect part of the damage inflicted upon it, as if physically attacking it only caused some of the force to rebound.

It probably possessed abilities similar to my own《Defense》and《Cloak of Blades》.

What this means is that punching it is risky, and even using magic could potentially ignite the gas inside its stomach.

With no apparent weaknesses at all, it's a bit difficult to know how to attack effectively.

If there's one safe way to eliminate it, it would be using《Final Sword X》.

If I use my ultimate technique, "Fatal Sword X," to send my opponent flying to some distant other dimension, I could easily eliminate that massive "Zombie" without hesitation... but that's not possible.

That technique, it's got terrible fuel efficiency.

Using it once drains a significant amount of magical energy.

In that case, dealing with the horde of water-dwelling "zombie" corpses... hmm.

I see. Completely cornered.

So far, it's gone quite ideally, despite this difficulty.

"Anonymous-san!"

Then Dogbite approached.

He had somehow changed into what looked like the "Armor of Hayate."

Its streamlined design appeared remarkably agile.

So versatile and impressive—truly enviable.

He positioned himself back-to-back with me, gripping a multi-bladed sword as tall as his own height,

"Leave this to me—get out of here now!"

What a surprise.

Who would have thought someone would say a line they've always wanted to say in life twice in one day—what a reckless fool.

"That's my line. You should be the one fleeing right now."

"What are you talking about? It's my duty to fight until the end."

Who decided on such a role, anyway?

That reckless declaration, fueled by adrenaline from being in a death trap—no, that won't do.

"Your magic power?"

"Eh?"

"You seem to have been fighting quite frugally, haven't you? Don't you think you're about to run out of energy soon?"

"That's... uh..."

"How do you plan to take down that monster alone, when you've got no magic left?"

He falls silent, glancing back at us.

Our surroundings were already being surrounded by the 'water corpses'—zombies.

If he hadn't made that reckless proposal—then, indeed.

This kid seems to be hiding something up their sleeve.

And that hidden card is something they don't want me to know about.

I'll pretend I don't notice and say,

"I'll explain the remaining tasks.

1. Clear out the weak enemies.

2. Deal with the big ones.

That's all."

"...What about just making a quick escape?"

"Impossible. There's a risk that Nanami and the others will get attacked. Besides, we'd be in trouble if those things actually showed up in reality."

"I guess that's true..."

I didn't even let them speak.

The real question is whether we have the willpower to see it through to the end.

Still, to be honest, I wasn't all that worried about that part.

Because I knew.

It was about time... "She" would come.